WWII vet agrees to narrow suit against Lubbock police officer

A World War II veteran wounded in a shootout last September with Lubbock police has agreed to drop part of his lawsuit against an LPD officer involved in the incident — a move that apparently also relieves the city of Lubbock from liability in the case.

However, the individual portion of Willie Williams’ lawsuit against LPD Officer Curtis Fish will go on in U.S. District Court.

Williams’ attorney, Charles Dunn, filed papers in U.S. District Court on Thursday saying there was no objection to a motion the Lubbock city attorney filed for summary judgment in the case.

Summary judgments allow civil suits, or parts of them, to be resolved without a trial.

The city attorney asked for summary judgment because a suit against a city employee acting in an official capacity is a suit against the city, and for a suit against the city to hold up in court, the plaintiff must show that a city policy that appears legal actually is unconstitutional.

In this case, Lubbock police determined officers were acting within department policy, but Williams’ suit never argues the policy was unconstitutional.

Fish is accused of shooting Williams in the throat while he and other officers were responding to a burglary-in-progress call early in the morning of Sept. 25, at the apartment next door to Williams’.

Williams, 91, took a shotgun from under his bed because he thought the noises officers were making outside his apartment were caused by someone trying to break in.

According to the lawsuit, the officers assumed a broken window in Williams’ apartment was actually in the apartment where the burglary-in-progress call came from.

Williams’ suit says he picked up his shotgun and went to investigate when heard someone removing broken glass from the window and moving the mini-blinds.

Those sounds, the suit says, were made by Fish and an LPD police dog officer removing the glass so they could send the dog into the apartment.

His lawsuit alleges Fish — the only officer named in the suit — shot first, and none of the Lubbock officers at the incident identified themselves as police before shooting.

Fish’s response in the case is Williams shot first, and he shot back to protect himself and other officers.

Williams also accused Fish and unnamed police officers of using excessive force both in handcuffing him at the scene, and in applying arm and leg cuffs to keep him in his hospital bed.

Police arrested Williams of two counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer, but a Lubbock County grand jury declined to indict him.

The suit is receiving expedited treatment in the federal court because of Williams’ age.

U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings, who had originally set a May 2013 trial date, has rescheduled the trial for early January.